The idea that robots are now dumb, and thus can do dumb people jobs, and in the future will get smarter and will be able to do smart people jobs is one that easy to understand but its almost entirely incorrect. Automation advantage and disadvantages don’t map perfectly to human strengths and weaknesses. There are very…

You don’t need to out think a neural network in order to use it anymore than you have to out think a calculator.

Robots are advancing on two fronts. On the one, they are getting more capable and able to do more jobs. On the other they are becoming much easier to program, and so don’t require nearly as much skill as before.

Do you really think that “the ammount of work to go around” is a fixed quantity? Why hasnt society collapsed from massive unemployment around oh 1800?

To take the quip seriously, it seems to suggest that the greatest danger lies in robotic replacements of idiots.

Agreed. That said, if you spent most of your life digging with shovels and power tools come in as you are a decade away from retirement, things are pretty dire, and that could be a wide spread (although temporary) problem.

While I don’t disagree that MBI or similar may well be required (or hell, maybe its a good idea to have as soon as we can afford it) I don’t think all manual labor jobs are going away in the reasonable future. Robots are good at jobs that are repetitive, or dirty, or dangerous. They are not good when the environment…

A robot is a tool. Be smarter than the tool. If a robot comes that can do your job, learn how to use it, so that it will be your tool and will let you do a better job.

Because what better way to show off to your friends how much better than them you are.

Maybe the earth hates the hummer just as badly. Which doesn’t sound far fetched.

Billionaires have needs too.

Assuming the disaster in question isn’t in the direct vicinity of the car in question, yes you might be right (if you aren’t yet, you will likely be soon). If the roads the car is on start cracking due to earthquakes that also collapse bridges, or a foreign army tanks run down the highway shooting cars at random, or…

Yea you’re basically describing a car.

Curious, in what part of the country (assuming you are in the US) do you live?

You are considerably more bullish on the rate of advancements than I am.

I disagree, though I suspect this is because we aren’t quiet on the same page.

It’s also rather light for a layoff.

xkcd had a very funny take on that idea.

Immediate human attention isn’t possible. In the hands of an average driver, a response is 1 quarter of a second away or more (up to 2 seconds).

Suggestion: rate systems on how quickly they require driver intervention in the even of a change in environment. A regular car would require near instant intervention. A vehicle with collision avoidance might give the driver a few seconds. A few seconds may not be enough for the driver to be completely innatentive…